A few things I neglected to mention in the previous post: Our hotel was listed as the Boonsiri Palace on the website where we booked, but when we got there, the sign outside said ‘Boonsiri Place’… Um, excuse me, Thailand, but there is a slight difference between a palace and merely a place. Luckily, it was still perfectly nice place to stay. Just one of those funny little “miscommunications” that happen when you travel. Also, there are tons and tons of stray cats in Thailand. They clearly haven’t been watching The Price Is Right over there. AND on our walk home from Khaosan Road we stopped at another street vendor selling these amazing Chinese donuts, pretty much like funnel cakes without the powdered sugar, so crispy and delicious. Oh, and they always give you a straw with a drink in Thailand. Always. Even with a bottle of water you buy at a convenience store. I don’t quite get it, but I like it. And Eminem is REALLY popular over there, still, even the old stuff. Must have heard Slim Shady 15 times. Okay, so on to DAY 2.
On our first day at our hotel, we had booked one of those packages where they take you around to do a bunch of tourist-y type things with a bunch of other tourist-y type people. Our ‘bus’ was picking us up at 7 for our excursion, so we awoke at around 6 (probably the earliest I’d woken up since the beginning of vacation… scratch that, DEFINITELY the earliest, if you don’t count being up at that hour because I was still awake from the day before), but it was like Christmas morning – the excitement and anticipation had me hopping out of bed.
Our ‘bus’ turned out to be one of those big vans like you ride in on a church ski trip, so that was pretty okay, and it was the five of us (me, Marcus, Sarah, Cameron, and Paul), a lady who I think was Chinese but never said a word, leading me to believe she didn’t speak English, and a young couple from the UK who were on holiday for 2 months, and had just spent a month in Bali. Which, from the sound of it, is where I will be holiday-ing next.
Our first stop was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, on the way to the Bridge on the River Kwai. We didn’t stay there very long, and I did take some pictures, although you feel a little silly smiling all brightly around a bunch of graves of dead soldiers. It wasn’t really a somber place though; it was a big open square field with rows upon rows of plaques for the soldiers, and a big monument in the middle. And it was a bright and sunny day.
Next we went to the Bridge on the River Kwai, where there is a war museum and a bunch of people hawking souvenirs. The war museum was really interesting – my favorite room was this one with just walls covered with prints of different photos from war. Most were from WWII, but there were also photos or depictions of Napoleon and George Washington and many other random war heroes or images. And you could walk all the way across the Bridge, although there wasn’t really much point, except just to say you did. On the far side of the Bridge was mostly more jungle. One thing though, there were no guard rails or netting or anything on the Bridge, you could just fall in the River or really hurt yourself if you had an accident – not like in the US where all the authenticity of the thing would be eroded by a bunch of crap put in place to keep lawsuits from happening.
Then we were off to ride on a river raft. I think for most of us, this was our favorite part, and it ended far too quickly. We rode in these motorized canoe-type things out to the bamboo rafts, which had some sort of hut on them in the center where most of us could sit in the shade. It was the first boat I had been on in months, and it reminded me how much I used to want to own a boat. Floating through the water on a warm day in Thailand – what could be much better? When the rafting came to the end, we had to climb out onto the bank, which was on the other side of the river from where we had entered, so we then had to cross this bridge to get back across to our ‘bus’. And I don’t know if ‘rickety’ is an extreme enough word to describe how crazy THIS bridge was. It felt like that bridge in Indiana Jones, where you’re sure it’s going to snap at any time, or one of the planks will crack and your foot will shoot through and you’ll rip your leg open. But I wasn’t scared because I’m super brave. And I also just kept my eyes on the prize. Needless to say, we made it without any injuries, but it again amazed me how cavalier they were with our lives. We didn’t even know we’d have to cross the bridge until we were there. That would never have flown in the States.
Next WE RODE ELEPHANTS! We drove to this jungle area where the elephants were kept, and they had a saddle-type thing for 2 people to ride in. The elephant drivers were basically just kids, and they sat bareback on the elephants’ necks. We went on a short pathway around some trees, and it really wasn’t as exciting as it sounds, even though it’s still a pretty cool feather to have in your cap, I guess. I mean, not every accountant I know has ridden an elephant. But then again, I’m no longer an accountant. :)
Then we had lunch at this outdoor sort of pavilion type place, family style Thai food that was just amazing. There was some sort of omelet, a chicken and vegetable and pineapple dish that I thought I wouldn’t be into but which was my most favorite, and I can’t remember what else, save for the fact that it was delicious. I swear, the food in Thailand made the trip worth it all on its own.
We briefly stopped at a park with a waterfall that reminded me of Turner Falls in Oklahoma. There were some adorable Thai babies playing naked in the pool at the bottom, and Sarah and I climbed to the top and acted like we had just conquered Everest. It was glorious.
After that, the last stop of the day was the Tiger Temple. It seemed sort of like a petting zoo, or Samuel Farm or something because there were just gorgeously colored roosters and water buffalo and peacocks and cows roaming around. And a camel. I don’t know. It seemed a weird assortment of animals to me, but hey, it was Thailand. And apparently all animals love Marcus. They take to him for some reason (if you read my earlier post about our trip to Dr. Fish, same story, those fishies wouldn’t get off his feet). So all these baby cows were sort of following us and the camel had to be shooed away by a worker (thank goodness because I wasn’t in the mood to be spit on). THEN we went down to where the tigers were kept. There were probably about 20 of them, all chained, and all drugged, by the looks of it. However, another tourist mentioned something about them being drugged, and the handler was very adamant that they were not drugged, and was really unhappy that anyone would say that. So who knows? Maybe tigers are just extremely sleepy… like people on drugs. The handler would make you all hook up to each others shoulders to walk over to the tiger and then tell you exactly where to stand, where to put your hand, and then he would take a bunch of pictures of you. And we moved around to about 4 or 5 tigers doing that. A real bummer about having lost my camera is that there were about 5 pictures of me with a tiger, with Sarah being grabbed and held back by one of the handlers in the background. By the photo progression, it seemed like she just would not learn. We laughed about it a lot after that.
Finally it was time to head back to Bangkok. The places we had been were about 2 hours away from Bangkok, so we all had a nice nap in the van on the way home. It was around 7 when we made it back, so we went to a different area of town for dinner, just the 5 of us, where I had my 2nd Thai green curry of the trip, which was fabulous, but Marcus’s meal took the cake. He had fried prawn cakes and then these delicious fresh, raw prawns with a dipping sauce we all went crazy over. It had the texture of sort of a relish, and was sort of spicy and pink colored, but not really sweet. We imagined it to contain onions, garlic, peppers, and… that’s where we couldn’t figure the rest out. But it was amazing. The area was extremely dead, I guess due to it being a Monday night, so we headed back to Khaosan Road for a little bit before hitting the hay. The next day we would fly down to the tip of Thailand to Surat Thani and catch a ferry to the island of Koh Samui for 3 days.
But of course, we couldn’t leave Bangkok without one more night out on the town, and as luck would have it (as it always does, and especially on this trip), Sarah and I discovered the coolest bar. I had seen it the previous day as we wandered, it was on the second floor and had a balcony overlooking Khaosan Road, and was inappropriately named Roof Bar, considering it was not on the roof. But maybe they just meant that it had a roof. Who am I to judge? Point being, there was an Asian guy singing western favorites, some Bob Marley, Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and plenty of others everyone knows the words to, like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, and Jason Mraz (Fact: Asians love to play acoustic and sing Jason Mraz). The bar was filled with beautiful people from all over the world, we were on a balcony outdoors on a balmy night, familiar songs were playing, I was with friends I love… and I realized that when I envisioned my dream life as an adult, this is what I had imagined. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It was a perfect moment.
And THAT was only Day 2. We hadn’t even seen the beach yet.
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